Week 6: Jazz in America
Reading
Chapter 6; Hacker topics 9 & 10
Listening
CD 1, tracks 12-24
Chapter 6 outlines the jazz style, the origins of jazz, and the various styles of jazz. As you read and listen, keep in mind the essential qualities of jazz in every period: rhythmic energy, most often in swing style; blues feeling, even on songs that are not technically blues songs; and improvisation: composing music at the moment it's performed.
To listeners who are unaccustomed to it, jazz can sound unorganized: what happens after the melody is stated? The listening guides on this page will help you hear the structures that guide improvisation by dividing the music into its formal units. Once you've listened to the performances in sections, be sure to listen again to the complete tracks so you can hear how the sections build energy from the beginning of the piece to the end.
One characteristic that we observed in the folk and traditional music chapter applies here too: the great jazz performers don't try to conform to an established, standard style. They try to create unique individual voices on their instruments. To experienced listeners, the identity of the great performers is evident after only a few notes. The clues are in the small details: the way they start and stop notes, their tone color, their vibrato, characteristic melodic shapes, and their sense of rhythm.
There's lots of jazz played around WIU. A jazz concert will be included on the list of choices for concert report 1, so you'll get a chance to apply what you're learning from chapter 6 in a concert.
Study questions
- How has the public image of the jazz musician changed over time?
- Most of the innovators in jazz have been African-American men and women, and non-African-American men and women have played important roles also. Be able to name some of the important jazz figures discussed in the chapter.
- Be sure you understand the defining characteristics of jazz explained on p. 85. Most jazz has a swing rhythmic feel, improvisation, syncopation (accented notes not on the beat), and certain instruments (saxophone, trumpet, drum set, bass, piano). Exceptions to these generalizations are discussed in the textbook.
- What is improvisation? What structures guide improvisation in jazz?
- How are jazz ensembles organized?
- The roots of jazz lie in late 19th-early 20th century popular songs, the blues, ragtime, brass band music, and gospel music.
- The jazz style came from the blending of European-derived and African-derived musical practices, most importantly in which city?
- Study the chronology of jazz styles. I'll ask you to match the style label with its description on the quiz. For example: which style period featured big bands playing for dancing and listening, and included Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington among its great jazz figures? Answer: the swing era.
- Be able to recognize similar descriptions for Dixieland, Bebop, Cool Jazz, Hard Bop, Funky Jazz, and modern jazz and fusion.
Listening review
These listening guides will provide links to each of the sections described in the text.
"Hotter Than That" by Louis Armstrong
| Intro | 8 bars | full ensemble; group improvisation |
| first chorus | 32 bars | solo improvisation, cornet first break, cornet second break, clarinet |
| second chorus | 32 bars | solo improvisation, clarinet first break, clarinet second break, vocal |
| third chorus | 32 bars | solo improvisation, vocal (scat singing) first break, vocal second break extended: vocal and guitar dialogue |
| interlude | 4 bars | piano |
| fourth chorus | 16 bars
20 bars |
solo improvisation, muted trombone; cornet break
group improvisation, cornet lead, includes stop-time patterns; guitar break; brief cornet and guitar dialogue, with the guitar having the last word |
Listen to entire track of "Hotter Than That."
"Taking a Chance on Love" Benny Goodman orchestra with Helen Forrest, vocal. CD 1, tracks 13-15. These links go with the outline on pp. 101-102.
| intro (tr 13, 00:00-00:11) | 5 bars |
| instrumental | 8 bars (tr 13,
00:11-00:26)
11 bars (tr 13, 00:26-00:48) |
| vocal (each section is 8 bars) | first a section (tr 14,
00:00-00:15)
second a section (tr 14, 00:15-00:31) b section (bridge) (tr 14, 00:31-00:48) last a section (tr 14, 00:48-01:04) |
| instrumental | first a section (tr 15,
00:00-00:17)
second a section (tr 15, 00:17-00:33) b section (bridge) (tr 15, 00:33-00:50) last 8 section (9 bars) (tr 14, 00:50-01:08) |
Listen to entire track of "Taking a Chance on Love."
"'Round Midnight," by Thelonious Monk, performed by the Herbie Hancock Quartet with Wynton Marsalis on trumpet. We'll compare the three versions contained on the 5-CD set at our discussion meeting, just as we compared three versions of "Barbra Allen" in week 3. Listen to track 13 on CD 1 of the 2-CD set to prepare for class.
| intro (tr 16) | gentle piano intro |
| statement of 32-bar aaba theme by Wynton Marsalis | first a section (tr 17,
00:00-00:51)
second a section (tr 17, 00:51-01:26) bridge (b section) (tr 17, 01:26-02:01) last a section (tr 17, 02:01-02:31) |
| transition (tr 17, 02:31-02:58) | powerful short notes, with drum fills by Tony Williams, then furious trumpet passage that leads into piano solo |
| two choruses of piano solo by Herbie Hancock, with a double time feel | first chorus
rest of first a section (trumpet melody extends into first a section) (tr 18, 00:00-00:08) second a section (tr 18, 00:08-00:24) bridge (b section) (tr 18, 00:23-00:39) last a section (tr 18, 00:38-00:56) second chorus first a section (tr 18, 00:56-01:11) second a section (tr 18, 01:11-01:28) bridge (b section) (tr 18, 01:28-01:45) last a section (tr 18, 01:45-02:00) |
| coda (ending section) (tr 18, 02:00-03:17) | Wynton Marsalis has melody |
Listen to the entire track.
"Summertime," by George Gershwin, performed by Miles Davis, trumpet, with the Gil Evans orchestra, recorded in 1958 (excerpt) (track 19)
The form shown here is different from that shown in the listening outline for this song on p. 108 of the text.
melody statement
a section,
ending in open cadence (00:00-00:18)
a'
section (starts like a, but ends differently), ending in closed
cadence (00:18-00:35)
solo chorus 1
a section
(00:35-00:53)
a' section
(00:53-01:10)
solo chorus 2
a section
(01:10-01:28)
fades
play entire track
The complete selection, available on the Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz as well as the Miles Davis-Gil Evans recording Porgy and Bess, includes four solo choruses.
"Little Lulu," performed by Bill Evans, piano, Gary Peacock, bass, and Paul Motian, drums, recorded in 1963. (tracks 20-22)
The form shown here is different from the the form outline on p. 109.
melody statement
section 1, 8
bars (tr 20, 00:00-00:13)
section 2, 10
bars (tr 20, 00:13-00:28)
piano solo chorus 1
section
1, 8 bars (tr 20, 00:28-00:41)
section
2, 10 bars (tr 20, 00:41-00:57)
piano solo chorus 2
section
1, 8 bars (tr 20, 00:57-01:09)
section
2, 10 bars (tr 20, 01:09-01:25)
bass solo chorus 1
section
1, 8 bars (tr 21, 00:00-00:12)
section
2, 10 bars (tr 21, 00:12-00:27)
bass solo chorus 2
section 1,
8 bars (tr 21, 00:27-00:40)
section 2,
10 bars (tr 21, 00:40-00:55)
piano solo chorus
section 1,
8 bars (tr 22, 00:00-00:12)
section 2,
10 bars (tr 22, 00:12-00:28)
melody statement
section 1, 8
bars (tr 22, 00:28-00:40)
section 2, 10
bars (tr 22, 00:40-00:56)
tag or coda
section (tr 22, 00:56-01:28)
"Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone," sung by Harry Connick Jr. and Carmen McRae, can be used for optional practice in listening for jazz style. We may listen to it in class in week 6.
Terms and Concepts
- swing
- walking bass
- comping
- riffs
- chorus
- improvisation
- big band jazz
- small group or combo jazz
- ragtime
- Dixieland
- Swing Era
- Bebop
- Cool Jazz, Hard Bop, Funky Jazz
- fusion
- sidemen
- scat singing
- break
- rhythm section
Hacker handbook topics
The Hacker topics this week are no. 9, find an appropriate voice, and no. 10, make subjects and verbs agree.
No. 9 give suggestions for avoiding jargon, slang, and sexist language in formal writing. Jargon has a place in writing for specialists, if there is no other way to say something. Ordinarily you should use the clearest language that gets your meaning across. For example, instead of:
My observations of the thematic situation in the initial segment of the piece yield three principal melodic ideas.
this is more concise:
The first section of the piece has three themes.
Slang has its place in creative writing, when you want to write the way people talk. But in academic papers it should be avoided (or used sparingly, to make a point). Sexist language promotes stereotypical treatment of women and men in language. For example, this sentence carries an assumption about trombone players:
The second theme was carried by the men of the trombone section.
Obviously, there are women trombonists, so the sentence ought to read:
The trombones played the second theme.
No. 10, agreement between subjects and verbs, is a frequent problem in student papers. Subjects and verbs have to agree in number to avoid confusion:
The woodwind section, home of the orchestra's highest and lowest pitched instruments, include piccolo, flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and contrabassoon.
Perhaps this imaginary writer was distracted by the plural "instruments" and made the verb "include" plural. But the subject of this sentence is "section," so it should read:
The woodwind section, home of the orchestra's highest and lowest pitched instruments, includes piccolo, flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and contrabassoon.
The basic principle that subjects and verbs should agree is explained in several more ways in no. 10.
Quiz
Take the week 6 quiz with CD 1 in the CD-ROM drive of your computer.
This file was last modified on 16 May 2000.
